Month: June 2015

5 Ordinary People finish of their extraordinary 1,200km through hike of The Heysen Trail at Cape Jervis this at 2pm Saturday 20th June 2015. They will be welcomed by a large band of supporters at the Heysen Trail Trailhead in Cape Jervis. Heysen Trail End-to-End certificates and badges will be presented by the President of the Heysen Trail, Robert Alcock.

About the family’s 65-day trek

A family of five, including Eli, 12, Emily, 10, and Noah, 9, skipped term 2 of school in favour of hiking the Heysen Trail.

There’s so much more to life than just maths and English that kids miss out on, if parents don’t invest time in them.

Along with their parents Luke and Erina, they will be a world away from the classroom routine when they undertake a mission to cover 1,151km on foot over 56 days. Their trek began at the northern trailhead at Parachilna Gorge, trekking south through the Flinders Ranges and Adelaide Hills to Cape Jervis.

It’s all part of Erina’s plan to give her children an educational experience of a different kind.

“We want to teach our children the life lessons that, when you’re caught up in the nine to five regime, you just don’t have the time to do,” she says. “There’s so much more to life than just maths and English that kids miss out on, if parents don’t invest time in them.”

Read more

View their blog and wonderful photos of the family’s long adventure on their Facebook page.

The End-to-End 5 group caught up with the Friends’ 1,000th member, Rachel Faulkner, in Port Augusta earlier this month. Rachel lives in Whyalla and is a Trail Runner with her partner. Rachel explained that they joined the Friends as they enjoyed running the Heysen Trail. As the 1,000th member Rachel was presented Life Membership and a embroidered fleecy top by Julian Monfries, Secretary (and past President) of the Friends, representing the President.

The death of Warren Bonython in 2012 at the age of 95 marked the passing of a person who had made an unparalleled contribution to our understanding and knowledge of the natural environment of South Australia.

He was a member and contributor to many organisations including time as President of the Royal Geographical Society and Patron of the Friends of the Heysen Trail, but it was his outstanding personal achievements, his remarkable treks, his leadership and vision, and his books, that constitute such a powerful legacy for our state.

The 1950 filling of Lake Eyre saw Warren a key member of the Lake Eyre Committee set up by Archibald Grenfell Price. His fascination with the Lake Eyre Basin continued over the years with numerous scientific field trips and treks in both wet and dry seasons.

The guest is Terry Krieg, who completed an epic 500 kilometre hike with Warren around Lake Eyre in 1982, and authored the book Walking on Eyre and Walking with Warren.

The Australian Wildlife Conservancy will be undertaking feral animal control in Buckaringa Sanctuary during coming months.

The cull program is somewhat opportunistic depending on numbers of goats present and availability of shooters so we cannot provide a set of dates when access to the sanctuary may be closed. The next planned closure is evening of 19th June through to the morning of 22nd June 2015.

The Heysen Trail passes through the sancuary between Quorn and Hawker, on map 6, chapter 4, of the Northern Guidebook.

Signs will be placed at points where the Heysen Trail enters the Sanctuary during all times of closure.

We remind hikers to obey these signs, and also to not camp within the sanctuary (a campsite that was located there was closed in 2006).

UPDATE: 9pm Thursday 4th June: login issues that commenced at 2pm today have now been resolved.

UPDATE: 3pm Thursday 4th June: There have been significant issues with our online payment system during May, until 2pm Thursday 4th June.

This was due to technical issues with the payment system provided by NAB. These issues affected 1,000s of Australian e-commerce websites.

Whilst we think these issues have now been resolved, we are monitoring the situation. We thank you for your patience when submitting payment processing details.

UPDATE 11:00am Wednesday 3rd June: payment processing is down. Please consider delaying making your registration until later this week, or contact our office to register for walks and make over-the-phone payment.

9:00am Tuesday 2nd June: We are experiencing significant difficulties with NAB payment processing. NAB has issued a public apology and is working hard to resolve their system failure.

Our e-commerce provider NAB has been experiencing ongoing issues. This has meant that customers have been experiencing difficulties submitting payments online. NAB recognises the impact this is having on customers and apologies for the inconvenience. NAB is working to resolve these ongoing issues as soon as possible.

The Friends of the Heysen Trail

The Friends of the Heysen Trail is the primary partner in maintaining the Heysen Trail. A regular walking program occurs year-wide, with different grades of walks catering for beginners to experienced walkers. More about the Friends

We acknowledge Aboriginal people as the Traditional Owners of the beautiful land that we walk along the Heysen Trail. We appreciate their continuous spiritual connection to this country over thousands of years and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and future.